1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cellular phone to be used for emergency reports that comprises a GPS receiver and a wireless communications section, and more particularly to an improved technology for rapidly performing stable GPS positioning and for implementing a reliable cellular connection with an emergency report center.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a means of contacting an emergency report center when a physically handicapped person, for example, who has gone out, has a fit or another such state of emergency arises, a mobile-type emergency report cellular phone that contains a GPS receiver has been proposed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-106608, for example. The cellular phone appearing in this same publication has a constitution in which a mobile telephone device is provided in an emergency report box comprising a push button, a body movement sensor, a GPS receiver, an SOS buzzer, and the like. By means of such a constitution, when a reporting party is in a state of emergency, by giving the push button a long push, he or she is able to make a report to an emergency report center via the mobile telephone. Furthermore, when the body movement sensor detects that a user's wheelchair has turned over or detects another such anomalous condition, the constitution is such that it is possible to automatically make a report to an emergency center via the mobile telephone. According to requirements, the emergency report box may be capable of receiving GPS signals transmitted from GPS satellites and of transmitting longitudinal and latitudinal information to the emergency report center. In addition to the above-mentioned paper, examples of mobile-type emergency report cellular phones of this kind, which are constituted from a GPS receiver and a wireless communications terminal, also include Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-270125 and Patent No. 3115268.
However, in a conventional system, when the power source of the GPS receiver is in an ordinary ON state, since GPS positioning necessitates a complex operation, battery consumption is very high, and, even if there is an intention to perform GPS positioning, there have been problems where GPS positioning is not possible and an emergency report center is unable to acquire information on the reporting party's position.
In addition, there have been cases where a reporting party is unable to operate the emergency report cellular phone in an emergency, or is incapable of making a telephone call, and problems where a reporting party is unable to perform GPS positioning by operating the cellular phone himself or herself, meaning that the emergency report center is therefore unable to acquire information on the reporting party's position.
Moreover, in such cases, although there is a requirement to rapidly rescue a reporting party, or to inform people in the surrounding area that a reporting party is seriously injured, it has not been possible to perform remote control of an emergency report cellular phone using a conventional system, meaning that it has not been possible for an emergency report center to attract the attention of people in the surrounding area through remote control of a siren speaker installed in the emergency report cellular phone.
Further, although this variety of emergency report cellular phone is equipped with a siren output function for performing notification to the surrounding area of a state of emergency, when the siren function is ON in a conventional emergency report cellular phone with a siren function, data communications have not been possible. This is because, upon performing data communications when the siren function is ON, data of such data communications has previously been destroyed by the output of the siren, meaning that data could not be correctly received.
Additionally, in a case where, for whatever reason, a connection with respect to an emergency report center cannot be performed smoothly, there is a requirement to take measures to rapidly perform connection processing with respect to an emergency report center. For example, as far as AMPS is concerned, as utilized by mobile telephone services in North America, two carrier networks provided by telecommunications companies are present, that are a system A and a system B, and a user pre-records either or both of these telecommunications company systems as a home system. Ordinarily, it is possible to connect to a home system without difficulty, but there are cases where, depending on the region, it is not possible to connect to a home system for one reason or another. In such a case, since the user is required to manually switch to and use a different carrier system, an improvement to such a system is required to allow the system to be used for reporting emergencies.
Furthermore, even in a case where a line is connected with an emergency report center, when, in the course of a telephone call with the emergency report center, the line is disconnected for whatever reason, it is necessary to perform a smooth reconnection with the emergency report center. Since, depending on the connection party, microphone sensitivity and speaker audio levels sometimes differ, there is also a requirement to automatically modify such levels to optimum values. A problem also exists in that, when, in order to attract the attention of people in the surrounding area, a telephone call is made when the siren speaker is sounding, the telephone call becomes difficult, and there is deterioration of the electromagnetic wave reception state.
Also, a GPS receiver receives GPS signals such as ephemeris data (orbital information) and almanac data (satellite clock), which are transmitted from satellites, captures satellites, and calculates degrees longitude and latitude for a positioning point. In a case where the power source of a GPS receiver is OFF for a long period, or in a case where it has not been possible to receive almanac data or the like from satellites over a relatively long period, in order for the GPS receiver to perform GPS positioning, same is required to once again download almanac data or the like from satellites.
Since the object is that the emergency report cellular phone should make an emergency report to an emergency report center when a reporting party finds himself or herself in a state of emergency, the emergency report cellular phone is not required to await the arrival of signals, meaning that, in a standby state, the power source of both the wireless communications section and the GPS receiver is OFF. As a result, when, at the time of an emergency report, the power source of the GPS receiver is first ON and GPS positioning is performed, satellite capture takes time, and, because all data required for the GPS positioning must be downloaded from satellites, it is not possible to rapidly perform GPS positioning in an emergency. For this reason, a technology has been proposed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-4735 which seeks to shorten the GPS positioning time by pre-storing satellite positional information.
However, when the location corresponding to satellite positional information stored in an emergency report cellular phone and the location of the actual GPS positioning point are very far apart, there is the problem that a period for capture of the satellite is required and therefore GPS positioning takes time. Also, when breakdown of the GPS receiver has occurred, or, in a location from which the capture of satellites is difficult, GPS positioning is performed, a long period for GPS positioning is required, meaning that it is not possible to rapidly transmit longitudinal and latitudinal information to the emergency report center. A design is therefore required to rapidly perform GPS positioning in a state of emergency.
Furthermore, with a conventional emergency report cellular phone, when same is not actually being used, it is not possible to confirm the residual battery capacity, or breakdown or other such state of the GPS receiver. Therefore, even when there is an intention to make crucial use of the cellular phone in an emergency, cases have been known where the residual battery capacity is limited or it is not possible to use the GPS receiver because the GPS receiver has broken down, for example. It is therefore desirable to provide a means making it possible to confirm the residual battery capacity in advance in readiness for emergency reporting.
Further, a conventional emergency report cellular phone containing a GPS receiver would judge whether or not a GPS receiver was operating correctly according to whether, with respect to a positioning request from a system controller to the GPS receiver, positioning information was sent back within a fixed period. However, in a case where positioning information is not sent back within a fixed period, such a method is incapable of distinguishing the source of the problem as being the physical connection between the GPS receiver and the system controller, or as being attributable to the positional relationship between the GPS receiver and the satellites.
When the problem lies with the former physical connection, diagnosis of this problem takes a maximum of ten seconds to complete. However, when the problem is attributable to the latter positional relationship, diagnosis of this problem requires a maximum of five minutes. For this reason, even if the problem lies with the former physical connection, with the conventional method, judgement of whether the GPS receiver is in a normal condition then necessitates a period that approaches a maximum of two minutes. As a result, it is desirable to establish a technique that makes it possible to rapidly judge whether the GPS receiver is in a normal condition.
Also, such an emergency report cellular phone is undesirable, since, when a connection is made with an emergency report center via a wireless line and GPS positioning is performed in the course of a telephone call, there is mutual interference between AMPS wireless electromagnetic waves and GPS electromagnetic waves.
An object of the present invention is therefore to propose an emergency report cellular phone to ensure the safety of a reporting party when an emergency report is to be made.
Specifically, an object of the present invention is to propose an emergency report cellular phone that performs operations required for the rescue of a reporting party through remote control from an emergency report center.
It is another object of the present invention to propose an emergency report cellular phone that is capable of performing data communications correctly in a state in which the siren function thereof is ON.
It is yet another object of the present invention to propose an emergency report cellular phone that preserves the safety of a reporting party by reliably performing connection processing for a communications line with an emergency report center when an emergency report is to be made.
It is yet another object of the present invention to propose an emergency report cellular phone that preserves the safety of a reporting party by enabling a smooth telephone call with an emergency report center.
It is yet another object of the present invention to propose an emergency report cellular phone that is capable of reliably and rapidly performing stable GPS positioning.